After saving up for some time now, I started looking for a new SLR camera to buy (was looking at the Digital Rebel XT) and I came across the new LX1 from Panasonic. It's a compact camera that offers a lot of manual controls (focus, exposure, shutter speed, aperture, etc) and true widescreen shooting in photo AND video mode (848x480) at 30fps!!! Since I do video work as well as photography, that widescreen video feature would be real nice. It also has OIS for the photo mode (not sure about video) and a live histogram display which is very helpful.

Check out here for more spec info and here for some actual pictures taken by the LX1.

I'm buying one the second they hit Ebay. One of the threads on dpreview suggested that they had serious noise problems at higher ISO's, but that may be from an early test model. The pics look good enough for my uses.

Ken, as far as the widescreen thing being gimmicky, it is the reason I would buy this camera over the Panny FX8 (or FX9 soon). It is one of the only two wide angle compact cameras out there, and the other is the Ricoh Caplio, which I tried out and hated. Plus the LX1 has a great movie mode, and its OIS, and 8mp at full widescreen. Being an ultra compact (or what I call a "party camera") most of what I want to shoot with it is friends and parties in indoor spaces, where 35mm isn't wide enough most of the time.
Still, I'll have to wait and see how big it actually feels with that lens sticking out the front. It has an external lens cap, not a built in one, which IMHO sucks for this type of camera. If it won't fit easily in my pocket, it is useless to me, and I'll live with an FX8/9.

If you want a true wide-angle zoom lens on a compact camera today take a look at the Canon Powershot S70. I recently began using one as a casual carry-about camera and it's terrific. Its lens is the 35mm equivalent to a 28-100mm (the LX1's will be 28-112mm). But what really sets it apart from the crowd, and also from the upcoming LX1, is its ability to capture in true RAW mode as well as in Fine, Super-Fine and Normal JPG modes. The LX1 will only feature two JPG resolutions.

The S70 is also a real bargain with a price just under $450. It's blown me away. I think it's the best little camera available today for anyone who really takes photography seriously but doesn't always want to (or can't) carry a "serious" camera and lens.

"But what really sets [the Powershot S70] apart from the crowd, and also from the upcoming LX1, is its ability to capture in true RAW mode as well as in Fine, Super-Fine and Normal JPG modes. The LX1 will only feature two JPG resolutions"

According to DPReview.com, the LX1 captures in RAW, TIFF, and JPEG formats. Did they make a mistake?

while another omits it (http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/spec...ic_dmclx1.asp). This latter page also indicates that the LX1 will offer a TIF file format, but the previous page indicated "No" to "Uncompressed file". So there's some understandable confusion in the pre-production period.

I guess we'll have to wait and see, but my bet is that it will capture RAW to be competitive.

Thank you, Kin.

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Dpreview has a review, that basicly says that the camera is so noisy, that is can only be used < 200 ISO. They like the optics, 16:9 posibilities and build, but the sensor is a lot more noisy than the competitions cameras.

I have seen some 400 iso pictures, and they are really baaad.

And it is even worse that Leica has based their new camera on this. They spoil their image doing this.

Yea, that's a shame. You can grab the review here at Dpreview. There's also a sample video for you to check out also. It doesn't look all that impressive in my opinion. My Canon SD200 can take cleaner pictures and record the same quality of video compared to it.

Nah it records widescreen video at 848 x 480, or at least that's what the Panasonic website says. The video I was talking about was based on a sample video [640x480] at Dpreview compared to some videos at the same resolution with my SD200.